After confirming that the upper edge inclined sail was used, Malin immediately started to transform the ship. Because it had not yet been finalized, Malin locked the 250-type armed merchant ship with a displacement of 250 tons. Moreover, Malin also has the most of this kind of ship.
However, in order to achieve the ideal effect, Marin personally came to Emden Shipyard to supervise and guide the shipbuilders to transform the ship. However, for safety reasons, Marin decided to start with the sails of the masts that were transformed. As for the masts in front, they remain the same for the time being.
This is because although Marin knew the principle of the upper edge inclined sail, he had no experience in how to control the upper edge inclined sail. After all, China was a country that was closed to the country during the Age of Discovery. When sail warships were popular, it was the Qing Dynasty in China. When China overthrew the Qing Dynasty and began to open its eyes to the world, the sail era was over.
Therefore, although China has a long history, there are really few people who know about Western sailing, nor the tradition of driving sailing. The ships Marin saw later in life were all driven by diesel engines, or they were as small as paddlings. In other words, Marin was just a theorist and had never had practical experience in sailing control.
This led to him being able to speak out. How to control the upper edge inclined sail must rely on sailors to explore it yourself. In this context, it is more adventurous to replace the sails on the ship with the upper edge inclined sail. The safest thing is to test it first with the mast near the stern. Even apart from the problem, the sails can only fall...
The manufacturing of the upper edge inclined sail is very simple. With Marin's theoretical guidance, I will find a few craftsmen to create a batch of copper rings connecting the mast and the wind rod, and the upper edge inclined truss and the sail. The reason for using copper rings instead of iron rings is naturally because copper is not afraid of water.
After the construction was completed, Marin arranged for the craftsmen to connect the thick copper ring to the wind rod and the upper edge inclined truss, and connect the copper ring to the sail. Then, the thick copper ring that covers the wind rod is first put down from the top of the rear mast, and then the series of thin copper rings connecting the sails are put on the thick copper rings. Then, the thick copper ring that connects the upper edge inclined truss is put on the thick copper ring. However, before the upper edge inclined truss, the craftsmen also installed a vertical upward guide rail on the wind rod. There are two copper rings connecting the upper edge inclined truss, and the thick copper ring is put on the mast, while the thin copper ring is put on the guide rail...
Finally, above the upper edge inclined truss, a spinnaker was placed. The spinnaker was close to the mast, and there was a string of thin copper rings. The copper ring on the top was connected by a rope and a pulley on the top of the mast, which facilitated the sailors to raise the sail below, just like raising the national flag.
...
But when the rear mast of the 250 armed merchant ship was installed with the upper edge inclined sail and conducted a test on the sea, Marin discovered another serious problem - there was no steering wheel like the steering wheel in this era...
In Marin's impression, the sailing ships during the voyage were commanded by the captain, who was driving the steering wheel. The captain often shouted commands such as "left rudder, 20", "right rudder", or "right rudder". Then, the first mate supervised several sailors to specifically turn the steering wheel...
Before, Marin had also taken a sailboat, but had never seen it at the stern, and thought it was also a rudder. But this time, when discussing with the old sailors how to control the upper edge inclined sail, Marin accidentally came to the stern control of the rudder, and truly saw how the sailors of this era controlled the rudder...
马林一脸懵逼地看着船长们吆喝着指挥水手们在那儿玩“撬棍”,控制船体转向,而不是扳动传说中的舵轮……
他摇了摇头,揉了揉眼,觉得一定是看到了假的大航海.但是,画面依旧……
I saw four strong sailors with shirtless upper bodies, under the supervision of the first mate, pulling a long crowbar that vertically connects the rudder below. When pulling, it made a "creaking" sound. The four strong sailors were sweating on their heads and shouting horns, as if they were very difficult.
“转个舵有这么吃力?”马林吃惊地问边上陪同视察的基德船长.
Kidd nodded and said:
"Well, it's just so hard. This is pretty good. The wind and waves in the North Sea are pretty average now. If you encounter big wind and waves, the force required to pull the vertical tiller is greater, and even four strong men may not be able to pull it. This kind of 250-level ship is better. On a 500-ton warship, because the rudder is larger, heavier and more difficult to pull, it usually takes 6 to 8 strong men to pull the vertical tiller."
“我擦……”马林忽然就爆了粗口.不过,没人能听得懂这种华夏式的粗口.
“看起来,上缘斜桁帆都不是最主要的了.先弄个舵轮才是最主要的.”
Marin watched the scene of controlling the vertical rudder for a while, and it felt really hard. Seeing the scene of four strong men sweating profusely, Marin felt that this was too waste of manpower. According to the captain, these four strong men were still in the first shift, and they would find four sailors to change shifts in a few hours... In this way, just turning the rudder requires a lot of sailors, which is a waste of human resources...
So, after the ship docked, Marin immediately sent guards to find several mechanical experts. Leonardo da Vinci was sent by Marin to North America some time ago to test the steam engine to drive water pumps for irrigation. Therefore, Marin can only settle for the second best now and find a few other mechanical experts to come.
When it comes to mechanical experts, who can compare with watchmakers in this era? These people can play with small gears and are most proficient in machinery. Of course, they also need to be equipped with some advanced blacksmiths to create the equipment they need.
After a few big watchmakers hired from Italy arrived, Marin assigned them a task - to create a mechanical system that can turn the rudder by turning the roulette. Moreover, it is best to be able to turn it by one person... Not only that, Marin also requires the simpler the entire system, the better, and it is necessary to prevent seawater corrosion. For example, iron parts cannot be used to avoid corrosion and rust by seawater... For this reason, the craftsmen unanimously decided to use corrosion-resistant copper to make gears and other parts...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Marin attaches great importance to this system and offers a high reward of 1,000 gold coins per person. Although the reward is very high, Marin thinks it is very worth it. Because this is of great significance to the voyage.
You should know that it is very inconvenient to control the rudder with a vertical rudder rod. It is not only difficult, but also has a small rudder angle, which can be turned at most by 5 degrees. This also causes the hull to turn very slowly. If it encounters shallows or reefs, if the steering is slow, it may still encounter it. Therefore, Marin requires that the new rudder wheel must be able to turn the rudder above 30 degrees...
After making these requests, Marin left first and returned to Orich. With the efficiency of these watchmakers, Marin estimated that he would not be able to come up with a reliable steer wheel in a short time. It is not difficult to let them take out a steer wheel, after all, they are all professional. However, it is difficult to come up with a reliable and durable steer wheel. Because it is reliable and durable, it takes a long time to test before it can be finalized.
Therefore, this time, Aben took the fleet to the Panama Pacific side to build cities and ports. He probably couldn't wait for these people to take out their mature rudder wheels, and he had to use a vertical rudder pole to pull the rudder.
Fortunately, the control of the upper edge inclined sail is very simple. Although Marin himself does not understand, the old sailors have basically figured out how to operate the upper edge inclined sail. With some details left, Aben's fleet can continue to test during the sailing. Anyway, only the rear mast of the stern uses the upper edge inclined sail, which does not affect the overall situation.
In this way, Aben's fleet, a total of 10 250-class armed merchant ships, loaded with people and supplies, embarked on his journey to Panama City.
In addition to the mission of arriving at the Panama City location and building a port, they also have the mission of building a transfer station on the island of Santa Maria near Concepcion, Chile along the way.
After all, the journey from Grenada to Panama City is too long and a transfer station is needed to replenish freshwater. In the future, the development of Chilean saltpeter may also require this as a springboard.
Chapter completed!